Darkroom printing is a dying hobby. Barriers are real.
Yes, barriers are real.
Let me tell you an anecdote.
Not so long ago, I spent some time with people in a local community center here. They had a photo club going on with a decent number (10+ or so) of people shooting film. I asked if there was any interest in color - sure enough, there was. So, would these people perhaps entertain the idea of also
printing their color work? OH WOW! IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE!!! So we went through the whole routine of "but aren't we going to die because of the fumes", "it's too difficult", "the materials and equipment don't exist anymore" etc. etc. To cut a long story short, I agreed with them that if they would assign a suitable space and a couple of people who would start to learn printing, I would make sure the equipment and materials would magically arrive at their doorstep. We walked through their facility and located a virtually unused space, no windows, with running water and power, easy to darken - in other words, perfect for a darkroom; it required virtually no modification (literally: unscrew one light bulb). Having made our agreement, I went cracking and drummed up what would be needed; some kind people donated an enlarger, timers, trays; we got Fuji to commit to sponsoring at least an initial batch of paper and chemistry.
Everything arranged for them, for FREE, no cash out of pocket, and I would teach them how to print color. All they had to do, was to show up.
I'm still waiting for the call.
All barriers removed from them, ironed out.
People 'want' something until they hit upon a barrier. It'll be space, equipment, chemistry, concerns about safety, knowledge - and if you get down to it, it's mustering up the energy to show up. It's always something.
Here's another story. Or actually, several - there's a group of people I loosely associate with; our shared interest is in analog color printing. Take this one young artist. She is perpetually strapped for cash, has basically no home (moving from one room to another) - but she wants to print (color, alt. process; anything she can get her hands on, really). And despite having none of the means to be able to do so, every time I talk to her she has somehow arranged a space, some people to drag that big old roller transport processor of hers into, and she's churning out new work. She has barriers
in spades - yet, she gets the f*** job done. The rest of that group are similar. You won't find them on forums complaining about barriers. They run into problems and work to solve them, because they
want to print.
The reason why I started about the willingness in the first place is because in this discussion, several people have brought up practical barriers that supposedly keep people from printing. If I look at those who do somehow make it, I recognize that they have run into ALL of those barriers, AND MORE, and worked their way around them. There's apparently a secret sauce involved, and my hypothesis is that's a combination of good old MOTIVATION and a healthy dose of GET UP AND GO. If I look at those who perpetually talk about how nice it would be to print their work, but somehow never get round to it, the main determinant is a lack of exactly those things. Sorry to be so blunt about it, but truth hurts, sometimes.
As to your barrier of not having the right enlarger - the situation isn't going to resolve itself by talking about it. You know this, of course. So you read up as well as you can, then make the best call you think you can, and you take it from there. Turns out that enlargers are fairly simple machines, so even if you get one with a minor defect, it'll be fixable. Don't sweat it. Just go and get the job done, if this is what you
want.
PS: these anecdotes/examples are just that - examples. I could fill an evening with similar stories and the bottom line is always that the main people don't start wet printing their work is that they just can't be bothered to. I don't blame them for it, but neither am I going to sugarcoat it.
